El Camino Administrator Charges Cleveland With Recruiting a Player

El Camino Real High administrator Don Thomas said Tuesday that he will complain formally to Cleveland High officials about basketball Coach Kevin Crider, whom Thomas suspects of recruiting a former El Camino Real student.

Thomas, an assistant principal at El Camino Real, said he will write a letter to Ida Mae Windham, Cleveland principal, documenting the recruitment of Rudolph Henry, now a sophomore and a member of the Cleveland junior varsity.

Thomas also said he has been in contact with City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness regarding the matter. According to Thomas, Harkness said the athletics office will monitor Cleveland’s response. If Cleveland fails to investigate, Thomas said, Harkness indicated that he might intervene. Harkness could not be reached.

“Something needs to be done about this,” said Thomas, a member of the Interscholastic Athletics Committee.

Crider denied that he met with Henry before the player’s transfer and said he didn’t know how Henry became enrolled at Cleveland. Crider said he welcomes the inquiry.

“I’m not going anywhere and I’m not concerned,” he said.

Thomas said the case almost fell between the bureaucratic cracks. El Camino Real basketball Coach Neils Ludlow said he had Henry in a class during the spring semester of 1992 when he overheard the player talking about the Cleveland program.

According to Ludlow, Henry told him that Crider had been to his house and had discussed the Cavalier program with Henry and his mother. Contact between players and coaches from different schools is prohibited under state rules.

Ludlow said he had taken Henry to Thomas’ office, and the player repeated the story. Thereafter, Thomas admits, Henry’s case became lost in paperwork.

“I didn’t even realize he was gone,” Thomas said.

Henry lives in the Hamilton attendance area in West Los Angeles and was bused to El Camino Real, Thomas said. A Cleveland administrator said that Henry is enrolled in the school’s humanities magnet program, which allows students to take advantage of specialized curriculum not available at all Los Angeles Unified School District campuses.

Thomas said that Cleveland never certified Henry’s athletic eligibility with El Camino Real, required in transfer cases.